so is it Bye Bye to Amex VA FC miles ?

I haven't seen another 'post' on this yet, apologies if I have missed one, also plenty of time for the Banks to think this one through as I don't think the new EU ruling starts until June 1st , but for those of us who collect FC Miles using our Amex cards for everything in life and clearing the monthly balance - just to max out on the collecting Miles opportunities - things may start to get just a bit harder.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... -perk.html

This was discussed last year when this regulation was first proposed.


But the article really only mentions cash back cards being affected rather than miles.

The same people cheering EU action on reducing the cost of mobile phone costs in Europe are complaining about this regulation. The EU can't win can it?

Cashback cards are structured slightly differently to co-branded cards.

With co-branded cards, it's the financial institution who pays the partner a flat rate for access to the latter's miles/points. Amex, for example, pays DL around $700 million per year for access to SkyMiles.

It's a complicated pricing formula for a financial institution to calculate how much extra revenue in transaction fees, interest payments, annual fees etc that $700m (in the above example) is worth to them. Most complicated of all is how to price keeping that card at the top of the pile (if there is a pile!) in your wallet.

These payments are also a very serious part of any airline's revenue stream. They are especially valuable at volatile times as they are constant payments usually agreed in multi-year deals, and do not vary with the various tides of the airline industry.

I don't think we'll see a nail in the VS Amex CC coffin just yet, or for quite a while longer.

Cashback cards are a different matter, though...